This week on Capitol Conversations
Secretary of State Mark Richie stops by to talk about the recent elections, Voter ID and what's ahead for Minnesota as we move toward redistricting.

Representative Jeff Hayden (DFL) talks about the legacy of MLK.

The Chair of the Minnesota House Health and Human Services Committee Rep Jim Abler (R) is joined by Ryan Winkler (DFL) to discuss the impacts of the States budget issues on Health and Human services, possibilities of a government shut down, photo ID and other proposals in the new Republican controlled Legislature.

PLUS - A Special segment of Stellmacher Reports on the Polymet mining story.
As always we welcome your comments and questions and will share them LIVE during the show. Send them to us at mncapnews on Twitter or Facebook at Minnesota Capitol News.

A set of new laws goes into effect starting this January 1, 2011. They include new protections for consumers who fall prey to bad or faulty workmanship by contractors. The new law essentially protects consumers for up to ten years after the work is performed by allowing them to work through an expedited resolution process rather than the courts.

Another new law allows a government agency who is enforcing child support to collect more information about a payee. Collection of email and cell phone information as well as other contact data is now permissible. This new law is designed to help track down people not paying child support.

Democrat Mark Dayton held his first press conference as Minnesota's new Governor elect just hours after Republican Tom Emmer conceded in the tightly contested race. Dayton began by thanking Emmer for his gracious concession, saying that both Emmer and Independence Party candidate Tom Horner ran, "principled and honorable campaigns". Dayton said that Emmer had called him shortly after 10 o'clock in the morning to congratulate him. Dayton also made it a point to thank the election officials including the canvassing board and the Secretary of State's office for their work on the recount effort.

During a session with 60 freshmen in the Minnesota Legislature, it makes sense for a different kind of political talk show to begin its freshman year as well.

Capitol Conversations is Minnesota’s first livestreamed, interactive weekly political talk show. The one-hour Web program is hosted by Marty Owings, a political enthusiast and citizen journalist who broke into the news business with KFAI radio. The show is livestreamed, or broadcast online, at mncapitolnews.com each Tuesday at 6 pm CT. With three episodes produced and viewership increasing by the week, Owings says there’s nowhere to go but up.

Owings describes Capitol Conversations as “less wonk and more Wayne’s World.” (The 1980s Saturday Night Live skit starred Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as two teens in a basement hosting a low-budget cable TV talk show.) In a similar vein, on Capitol Conversations regular guy Owings engages guests in dialogue that’s casual, candid, and often lighthearted. Former Independence Party Gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner inadvertently referred to Governor Mark Dayton as Senator Dayton; Owings ribbed Horner about not letting go of the election outcome. “I let it go on midnight November second,” a relaxed Horner chuckled.

“The business of governing is serious, and so is journalism. But if you can’t stop and laugh at yourself every once in awhile, that’s sad,” Owings says.

Host Owings is no stranger to self-deprecating humor, and at times is in awe of the guests he interviews. Never having worked at a newspaper or television station, he calls himself a “glorified copyboy” in a field of established journalists such as MinnPost reporter Eric Black, a recent Capitol Conversations guest. Owings says, “I’m just a dude who’s interested in civic discourse, political life, the fun of it, the process of government, all the things that are important to democracy.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer held a 10:30 news conference this morning in which he highlighted a number of concerns he says could effect the outcome of the election. Emmer stated that the issue of more votes than people calls into question the integrity of the election system and is "an assault on the very principles of the American voting system". Emmer repeated the one person, one vote statement several times during the press conference. He said that he was disappointed with the Minnesota Supreme Courts decision to deny his petition to have Minnesota counties undergo a reconciliation process. He added that he was not currently planning another court challenge, but that he would not make a decision on that until the court issued it's opinion in the original case and the issue of unreconciled votes was resolved.

According to a press released issued today the Minnesota House and Senate GOP its new committee leadership will help promote efficiency. According the GOP this new committee structure is meant to, "streamline" the committees and their functions. This new structure is something DFL Represetative Gene Pelowski says Democrats have been working on since 2006. Pelowski said in a statement that, " I am pleased to learn today that the Republicans are adopting our DFL measures in a bipartisan way."

In the attached document obtained by Minnesota Capitol News, the Minnesota Republican Party warns election officials that it is a felony not to train Election Judges to perform status checks, "if there is information on the drivers license that the individual in not eligible to vote... such as... a 'status check' designation". The letter also says that any election judge who fails to perform a status check is guilty of a Gross Misdemeanor.

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About MCN

Capitol Conversations

We are a non-partisan, independent news site devoted to dissiminating information and commentary on issues from the State Capitol and Minnesota politics.

Capitol Conversations Staff:
Simone Reed - Producer And Social Media Coordinator
Katherine Loudenslager - Producer/Technical Advisor
Cliff Dahlberg - Technical Advisor
Guest Journalists may contribute from time to time and their names will be displayed in the by line.